LeBron James, arguably one of the greatest professional basketball players of all time, is now catching much deserved heat for disrespecting the U.S. and his own coach, by practicing his golf swing instead of showing reverence toward the country that has made him a millionaire for playing a game during the playing of the National Anthem.
A video of James is now being spread around social media, showing him doing air swings while the anthem is being played during a recent Lakers game and people are having strong reactions to the blatant show of disrespect and arrogance. At first, the clip didn’t receive a lot of attention. Fans of the sport are starting to see that James, the self-proclaimed “king” of basketball, isn’t as good on the court as he once was and has made it clear he has contempt for his home country. Many fans have turned their attention away from basketball to football.
However, the behavior caught the eye of WFAN sports talk host Craig Carton, who took James to the proverbial woodshed for his antics. “If you want to disregard your coach, and disregard your teammates, and be an 11+1 type of guy, do it on your own time,” Carton went on to say during his program. “Don’t do it during my national anthem.”
According to Breitbart, Carton then added, “He disrespects the national anthem. And while the anthem is being played, play it here, guys. Your guy, the self-appointed king, decides that’s a good time for me to work on my golf swing and disrespect the men and women of the military who gave their lives for this country. Let me get a couple of air swings in while the anthem is being played because I don’t play good basketball anymore, I’ve got to work on my golf game.”
The report goes on to point out that had James’ behavior been shared around social media a few years ago, it would have garnered even more attention and likely transformed him into a leftist folk hero. However, as the report notes, America is moving forward from hailing such individuals and antics as heroic to shameful and childish, mostly due to a culture shift back toward right-of-center values that started with the election of President Donald Trump to a second term in the White House.
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One user who weighed in on the clip said, “It’s honestly the ugliest practice swing I’ve ever seen. So forced and unnatural. I hope he struggles forever with golf. Such a b*****d.” Another wrote, “Dude is so irrelevant in the NBA now he will do anything for attention.” A third said, “It’s impressive how someone can be so confident while offering so little worth defending. Support isn’t owed to arrogance, especially when it’s paired with appalling behavior.” Another commenter put the nail in the coffin by saying, “LeBron was locked in against KD and the Rockets…if this were the TGL. If the NBA worked like golf, the Lakers win as the lowest score takes it. Unfortunately for LeBron and company, basketball still rewards the team that scores the most points. Wrong sport, wrong scoring system, same result.”